Heather Mikulha, age 16, of Birmingham, Ala., for her question:

WHAT IS NIHILISM?

Nihilism is a designation applied to various radical philosophies, usually by their opponents, the implication being that adherents of these philosophies reject all positive values and believe in nothing. Nihilism comes from the Latin word "nihil" which means "nothing."

The term was first used to describe Christian heretics during the Middle Ages.

In Russia it was applied in the 1850s and '60s to young intellectuals who, influenced by Western ideas, repudiated Christianity, considering Russian society backward and oppressive, and advocated revolutionary change.

The best known fictional nihilist was Bazarov, one of the main characters in Ivan Turgenev's famous novel "Fathers and Sons."

The Narodniks (Populists), who worked for a peasant uprising in Russia in the 1870s and the Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) movement, members of which assassinated Czar Alexander II in 1881, were also considered manifestations of nihilism.